A bunch of amateurs? Indonesia's homegrown jihadis ridicule Isis after Jakarta attack
Four weeks after Islamic State claimed killings, veteran extremists scorn its lack of relative success while experts fear local groups are now a growing threat with ‘foreigners’ in their sights
As Abu Tholut sips on his guava juice, his wispy silver beard brushing against the glass, he mulls the state of global jihad and his not insubstantial role in it.
“Al-Baghdadi,” scoffs the 54-year-old convicted terrorist, letting loose on his views of the leader of Islamic State. “When I went to Afghanistan in ’85, he would have been just 14.
“We call him,” he says with a smirk, “anak kemarin sore”.
The phrase in Indonesian refers playfully but somewhat derogatorily to the new kid on the block – like a child born just “yesterday afternoon”.
Tholut is seated with an entourage in a small restaurant in a suburban backstreet of Bekasi, a city 30km outside Jakarta, just months after being released from prison.
It was his second spell in jail for terrorism offences – in 2011 he was jailed for his involvement in a militant training camp – but he is now out on parole and is freely speaking his mind.
Isis has claimed responsibility for the assaults near Jakarta’s Sarinah department store, the worst terrorist attack in Indonesia since 2009. In the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, home to a radical fringe of sometimes interconnected but oscillating jihadi networks, it has raised fears about the spectre of more to come.
Tholut – himself a former senior member of one of those networks, Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), the south-east Asian militant group behind the 2002 Bali bombings – has strong views about what happened on 14 January.
“We can see in the video that they seem to be thinking on the spot. They were both thinking: ‘Where should we go? All right, you go there.’ It’s like they didn’t plan things and planned on the spot instead. Then the police came, and they shot them. A traffic cop,” he laughs.
The Sarinah attack was a laughable, bungled mess, he adds.
“Why did they bring a bomb into the parking lot, and then they just sat there? Who knows what they were doing, tinkering with it, then one sat down, and suddenly the explosion happened!” An animated Tholut pauses before laughing again: “What were they doing there?”
Post time 12-2-2016 05:24 PM
Senyum sinis saja pakcik teroris tegar ni menghencap ISIS sambil minum jus jambu batu.
变色卡
tu kami x sebut frasa2 bahasa siam hybrid bahasa kedah persis makpak kami dok cakap lagi...
